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Thursday, October 9, 2014

Romantic novelist Isabella Connor chats about all things Irish and about being two people at once

Today, I shall be talking to the novelist Isabella Connor,
who is actually two people who have never even met, but who somehow manage to
write brilliant novels together.

So, ladies – do you wish to reveal your day-to-day
identities, or shall we keep them a secret? I’m sure readers would love to know
how you manage to write independently and still deliver a seamless story, so
will you share a few secrets with us?

We can reveal our
identities, Margaret, but then we’ll have to kill everyone…

Isabella Connor is
the pen name for Val Olteanu, who lives in Vancouver and is a teacher...

...and Liv Thomas, who is on the south coast of England and works for the NHS.

A lot of people have
said our work is seamless – this is probably because we take and write a chapter
each (after compiling a structure) but we don’t leave it at that. We then swap our work so the other can read
it and suggest changes if necessary. Because of this, we’ve both grown thick skins
when it comes to critique! There are times when we compromise and times when we
dig our heels in and insist something stays as it is. It’s not always easy, but
more often than not, we’re on the same page when it comes to developing the
story.

Your first published novel was Beneath an Irish Sky. Who or what inspired the story?

It was inspired some
years ago, after seeing a TV series called “Sex Chips and Rock and Roll,” which
starred Joe McFadden as a feisty young Irishman. The character of Luke and the general story
just presented itself. There was no ‘coming up with a plot’, no sitting at the
PC chewing on a pencil. It literally did
just arrive unannounced. And the
characters all came ready-named too!

The follow-up to your first novel is An Irish Promise. Some authors find sequels are very difficult to
write. Did you find it hard to continue your own story, or did everything flow
and did you not have any problems?

An Irish Promise is a stand-alone story, not a sequel, although
there is one character from Beneath an
Irish Sky in it – and probably not one you’d automatically think of. There are some other similarities between the
novels: both are set in villages, and show the effect on a small, tight-knit
community when a stranger comes in and turns everything on its head, and both
novels also deal with a different type of discrimination. We always know the
ending of our novels before we start, so that does make the writing process
much easier. There are quite a few plot twists in An Irish Promise – those were probably the most challenging to
develop and write.

Do your own lives inspire your work in any way?

Liv: Maybe not my own
life, which would probably be as interesting as making a novel out of the phone
book, but I do get ideas from things I read, or from what other people say.

Val: Indirectly, I
think. For example, An Irish Promise
focuses partly on bullying. I’m a teacher, so this is an issue that unfortunately
schools often have to deal with. The incidents in the novel are fictional, but
the motivations behind bullying and the effects that bullying can have – on the
victim and the instigator - is something that I’ve become aware of through my
job.

Your publisher, the award-winning independent Choc Lit,
insists romantic heroes need to be irresistible. What combinations of qualities
make your own heroes irresistible?

A hero doesn’t need
to be heroic. The right qualities – such
as kindness and a sense of humour - can make any man attractive. In Beneath an Irish Sky, Luke wasn’t a
typical hero – slightly built, inexperienced, but very principled and very
loyal. Finn in An Irish Promise is
more of a conventional hero in the physical sense, but both characters are
vulnerable and this is one quality that will probably always be present in our
heroes, as we think a certain level of vulnerability in a man is appealing. Our
heroes will always have flaws. Otherwise we’d have to change our genre to
Fantasy! J
In our books we generally have a heroine who is more than capable of looking
after herself, not one depending on a man to be strong for her.

You live in different time zones. Do you manage to
communicate effectively from day to day?

It’s not always easy,
but email and the telephone are very useful. Well that’s an understatement.
They’re imperative. We tend to catch up with each other by phone at the weekend,
so we can resolve any issues.

Do you ever have such a thing as a typical writing day?

Liv:I rarely get the time to devote to writing
without any interruptions, so maybe that’s typical for me. I love Saturdays during the football season
because my other half is generally out most of the day.

Val: I do try to
write regularly – after work and at weekends. That means household chores often
take a back seat to writing, and I try to ignore the sinkful of dishes and the
piles of laundry as long as I can.

Liv:
I don’t even notice those....

Five Quick Questions:

How did you feel when you got
your first publishing deal?

Liv: Stunned. Ecstatic. Excited. I still am all those things.

Val: Over the moon. I phoned everyone I knew to tell them about it. Then
the next day, I splashed out on an original piece of art – a lovely abstract of
a garden in the rain. I justified it as one artist paying it forward to
another.

What is particularly inspiring
and appealing about all things Irish?

Liv:Where do I start? It’s
magical. The country, the people, the history, the charm…and the accent. If I
was on a jury and the defendant was Irish, I’d be hard pushed to find him
guilty!

Val: The Irish have a great sense of humour. Plus they’re friendly and
great communicators. Those ingredients can make for very appealing fictional
characters.

What’s next for Isabella Connor?

In the immediate future, working on promoting An Irish Promise, and there is at least one more ‘Irish’ novel in
the pipeline. We’ve had a lot of
requests for a sequel to Beneath an Irish
Sky, so that’s a possibility.

When your fairy godmothers
finally get round to visiting you, what will you ask them to do for you?

Liv: To have our ‘Irish’ novels turned into six-part TV series. J

Val: And to be involved in the casting process, especially for our
heroes!

What single piece of advice would
you offer a novelist working towards commercial publication?

Liv: Write about what you know, and what you would like to read.

Val: If you’re writing romantic fiction, join the RNA New Writers’
Scheme. The critique is invaluable.

Margaret James The Silver Locket

Margaret James Elegy for a Queen Kindle Edition

About Me

I'm a novelist, journalist and teacher of creative writing for the London School of Journalism. I've written fifteen published novels and lots of short stories, one of which was published in the RNA's Golden Anniversary anthology, Loves Me, Loves Me Not - am very proud of that!